Mike Chaney's Tech Corner

Forum Rules, Status, and Info => Forum Feedback, Status, Issues, etc. => Topic started by: admin on May 03, 2010, 04:28:09 PM



Title: Forum Member List Cleanup: spammer accounts deleted
Post by: admin on May 03, 2010, 04:28:09 PM
Today I've deleted literally thousands of user accounts created by spammers since the forum went online a year ago.  Turns out 75% of the members on this forum were spammers who created spam accounts via an automated forum exploit.  Fortunately, 99% of the spammers never posted to the forum: they just cluttered the member list with spam accounts.

In this cleanup effort, it is possible that a few "legit" accounts got deleted if they had zero posts and they were in the same IP range as the spammers.  If you recently created an account and find it no longer active, simply re-register.  Everyone who has already posted here at least once is safe: only accounts in the IP range with no posts were deleted.  I've implemented a higher security verification image during the registration process and also require account activation by email now, so hopefully that will eliminate most of the spammers.

See you on the forum.

Mike